A clear picture of the real victim

Monday

Nov 6, 2017 at 9:20 AMNov 6, 2017 at 9:20 AM

Kelton Brooks @BrooksHNews

Let’s paint this vivid picture of hypocrisy, entitlement, racial undertone and an owner’s mentality and just an overall lousy look upon society to illustrate the event that occurred inside Conestoga Arena in Garden City Wednesday night.

First stroke across the canvass:

During an NJCAA Division I sanctioned basketball game, a white male, Jim Howard, a Broncbuster Athletic Association member, ran down from the stands to physically confront Rasool Samir, a black Muslim Garden City player, who was practicing shooting during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Under no circumstances should a grown man, booster, fan or any patron in the crowd be allowed move hastily from the stands with the intentions to assault an 18 or 19-year-old college student. Period. Yet, Samir was removed from the game, but Howard, who had to be physically restrained from attacking Samir, was allowed to return to his seat.

Howard should be either facing charges or removed as a member of Broncbuster Athletic Association. What gives Howard the entitlement he demonstrated to want to physically harm Samir for not wanting to stand still or salute a flag? A dollar amount?

There is no rule in the NJCAA regarding anything about the national anthem.

Allowing Howard to remain as a member is a black eye on the college and a continuous gouge at a sore spot that has not healed in a Garden City community where a year ago plot to bomb a Somali community by three white men was foiled by the FBI.

Samir reportedly flew out of Garden City early Friday morning and was back home in Philadelphia by Friday afternoon.

The second stroke of the canvass comes with an unclear hue of he-said, he-said.

According to Burnfin’s report: “GCCC Athletic Director John Green said that Samir and head men’s basketball coach Brady Trenkle met late Thursday night to discuss the controversy. During the meeting, according to Green, Samir, who was already redshirting this season, expressed his interest to be released from his scholarship with the school and return home. Green said Trenkle and the college agreed to allow his release.”

Samir reportedly said he did not leave on his own and “Coach Trenkle” was who Samir told Burnfin he had to leave. Green said he has “verbal confirmation as well as items I have seen in written and electronic format that tell me he wanted to go.”

No word can be taken above the other regardless of the rank anyone holds because Howard was allowed to stay after having to be restrained from physically harming a former student-athlete and Samir may not have had anything to lose as a redshirt player.

If Samir is telling the truth, the precedent has been set to 11 out of 14 African-American players on the Garden City roster that if they had the desire to protest police brutality and racial injustice towards people who share the same shade of skin, then you will be removed from the team within two days.

However, according to Samir, he wasn’t protesting. He told Burnfin, citing his faith, that standing for the anthem has never been something he’s done and he did not expect a negative reaction.

America is a country that has long prided itself on religious freedom and freedom of speech, even hate speech with tiki torches and swastikas.

If the administrative knew or later found out about his religious affiliation, which would come into play during the national anthem, then Samir should still be enrolled at the college.

Samir was the victim Wednesday.

A victim of the entitlement of a man who felt dollar donations allows him to attempt to harm a college student physically. A victim of a false belief in religious freedom in a city where last year Abdulkadir Mohamed of Garden City said, “I don’t know why these people hate (us). We’re not terrorist” after the bomb plot was discovered.

And a victim of what America wants to happen if an athlete does protest against racism, police brutality and injustice in a country they too, call home: silenced.

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